This post is most likely for your parents or grandparents. :)

I am not a picky eater. In fact, I eat almost anything and everything under the sun, with the exemption of innards. Because of this, my cholesterol and triglycerides skyrocketed to dangerous levels. My husband is no exemption, as his lipid profile readings were worse than mine. Our doctor was very alarmed and frequently lectures us on heart attack, stroke, and various medical nightmares. We were also given the usual statins — lipitor, zocor, etc. but we never really took them since they will damage our livers in the long run; not to mention that they are outrageously expensive.

In an effort to become healthy, or at least bring down our cholesterol and triglycerides to an acceptable level, we started, uhmnnn, dieting…which lasted for only a week or two. Tee-hee! We even got a swimming pool membership to sweat-off the fats, which we hardly used due to frequent overtime at work and a million other reasons i forgot already. In short, we were unsuccessful in our attempts to improve our lipid profile…until we were introduced to Wholefood Wheatgrass and Alfafa (WWA). Read more »

Posted: September 25th, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
Comments: none

My imagination always gets ahead of me, and I can actually scare myself simply by imagining far-fetched things. Case in point was when I asked my dad how I can survive if I am forced to live in the forest because there’s war going on in the city. He answered me nonchantly, saying that since it is a forest, there will be plenty of plants I can eat…or in case I get sick, I can heal myself anyways since there are herbs around.

Still, i am not satisfied.

I asked him how will I know if the plant is poisonous or not, I surely don’t want to poison myself accidentaly and die in the middle of the forest…to be eaten by beasts. Also, among the million plants around, how am I suppose to know what herb heals what. I made a mental note to bring with me a picture book of healing herbs while running towards the forest. Hihihi! My dad, who is more sensible than I am, said that God is actually more intelligent than I think. He said that God left us clues so we can easily distinguish good plants from bad plants, and what the good plants can actually do. He gave me two pointers: Read more »

Posted: April 20th, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
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Now this post is for the beauty-conscious, which I admittedly am…and it’s all my dad’s fault.

When I was young, I would see my dad making faces at the mirror and I would laugh endlessly because he looks like a monster! He would dare me to copy him and we’ll have a contest on who looks more frightening. Of course he wins hands down. Hihihi! Making faces at the mirror is actually what he calls “facial exercises” and he said that it would help me stay youthful for a long, long time. I used to laugh about my dad’s so-called facial exercises until I saw Cory Quirino doing the same thing on TV, claiming that it is one of her beauty secrets. That made me sit down and watch her interview. She said that aside from wrinkles, women are also troubled with varicose veins as they grow old…specially those who have taken contraceptive pills. She added that this can be remedied by sclerotherapy, but it can be quite costly. Then out of nowhere, my dad appeared from behind and muttered “gotu kola lang yan”. Since I was a teenager then and varicose veins are the least of my concerns, I did not press for more info…until now.

I figured I’d feature a beauty herb this week; so, I immediately sat my dad down for an interview about gotu kola’s health benefits. I got more than I bargained for. I think you’ll agree with me when you get to read my dad’s sharing on gotu kola. Read more »

Posted: April 3rd, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
Comments: 10

My dad usually brews luyang dilaw and I am guilty of totally ignoring it….until I went to Paris. It is true that Parisians are wine drinkers, but not all of them, and not all the time. Since I usually kill time before fetching my husband from work, I usually just sit in a cafe and indulge in people watching…mainly because I don’t have too much euros to burn. Hihihi!

I have observed that Parisians are fond of ordering ginger tea after meals. Restaurants even have ginger apple tea in their menu and it is considered a specialty. Of course, I didn’t order the special tea. It’s something like 8.50 euros, roughly 510 pesos…quite expensive for a cup of tea. Curious as a cat, I ordered the plain ginger tea instead and hoped that it will be well worth my 5.00 euros. My order came in an elegant tea cup and I was also given honey to go with it. And my, it was delicious! At that moment, I remembered my dad and his ginger tea that I usually hide from. I vowed to join him in his tea sessions when I get back…since his are free and comes with honey too.

I have always suspected that there’s more to his tea sessions than meets the eye. And well, I was right! I interviewed him about his ginger tea and this is what he said: Read more »

Posted: March 28th, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
Comments: 28

As my dad has given life to me 28 years ago, I now give life to his words.

My dad is a brilliant health guru. I was so thrilled when he agreed to be my co-blogger in the condition that I will translate his articles from Filipino to English. Apparently, he want his articles to be understood worldwide. He sure does know how to go global. And so the excerpts below are not his words, but mine. The knowledge are obviously his and only his since I am more of a patient than a health guru. Hihihi.

For his maiden post, I asked my dad how he wants to introduce his portion in my blog, and this is his message to you all:

I am nearing 60 years old (56 to be exact), and yet I play basketball with boys half my age. I am proud to say that they rarely out run me in the court. Of course the wrinkles and the white hairs are there, but the maintenance medicines have not quite made it to my list of growing old gracefully. My secret is everyone else’s : HERBS.

Being a reflexologist since the late 1980′s, my interest for maintaining good health has grown to encompass neuro-muscular therapy, growing organic food, and healing herbs. For many years, I only impart my knowledge to my family and our closest friends, but through my daughter’s blog, I think it’s time to share the little that I know which I think every Filipino should know. Our country is the biggest Mercury Drug in the world. Our common plants can aide us in healing our ailments, even the much dreaded cancer which can afflict almost anybody…even our dear Cory Aquino.

I invite you to read my daughter’s blog because I will introduce you slowly but surely to the wonderful world of healing herbs and other health issues.  My posts will come in small showers as I think Monette will have a lot more interesting things to say than I do. But I do hope that my posts will be of help to you and to your families in enjoying long and healthy lives. – Nick Bagtas

Posted: March 25th, 2008 under Healing Herbs.
Comments: 4